Sweet Oblivion
by Doggiegal
Summary: A year after the events of KHII, it is time for our hero to rise again. Only this time, he needs the help of three Guardians of Light. Full summary on profile.
1. Prologue: Intangible Fears

_Sweet Oblivion_

Written By Doggiegal

Prologue: Intangible Fears 

_"Don't tell a story to make money. Tell a story because it wants to be told."_

The darkness instills a fear in everyone. For some, it is an active fear, gnawing away at both their physical and mental health. Others have a subconscious dread, lying in wait for a chance to spring into action.

Ten-year-old Hale fears the lurking darkness. However, he feels that there is no reason for him to fear anything. He's wracked his brain for a reason as to why the darkness unsettles him—did his father ever fear it?—, but has found no satisfying answer. Hale's mother is a rock—like his aunts—, doesn't admit to being frightened by anything. Odds are, he didn't inherit the terror from her.

Why, you ask, does he assume this without any apparent proof? Because, come tomorrow morning, she's leaving with his live-in aunt to try to slow down the flow of darkness. He's also afraid that his lovely mother will die during this mission; she's not indestructible. But, he's had dreams of a hero, aided by a myriad of friends, who could come to his world and save them all. Hale is not religious, but he prays. Prays that the spiky-haired brunette with the sword shaped like a key can restore his home to its former glory.

The Hero, however, has a problem as well. He needs to find two of the three enigmatic Guardians of Light—one whom has been supposedly dead for quite a few years, and the other who was an anomaly that was never supposed to exist. He doesn't know much about them, only that they live on a rather secluded planet known as Sweet Oblivion—a place much in danger. A place he needs to protect.

You see, the problem is that the planet—the same planet the young boy lives on—is practically undetectable. There is no sign of such a place anywhere. How can the Hero save such a place if he can't even locate it?

* * *

This is the story of one teenaged hero, seven princesses, three pure-hearted guardians, a boatload of allied fighters, and one special boy.

This is the story of Sweet Oblivion. And so it begins.

**Author's Note: Yay! Finally, my baby makes its debut on your computer screens. This may be Kingdom Hearts, but it involves a bunch of Final Fantasy characters. Sora, Donald, and Goofy are the only characters original to KH that will have a big part in this. Pairings will be revealed in time, though I suppose those who know me should be able to guess as to what they will be. I can't promise fast updates, but I _will_ try my best to get the chapters out to you ASAP. I suppose I _should_ get back to work on my three Christmas one-shots, considering the fact that they're late...**

**Happy New Year!**

**-Doggiegal**


	2. Chapter 01: Responsibility

_Sweet Oblivion _

Written By Doggiegal

Chapter 01: Responsibility

_"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice_—_you can't fool me twice."_

-President George W. Bush

Sora, Goofy, and Donald, to be honest, aren't your average everyday heroes. They aren't superhuman, and they do need to eat and sleep and all that. They aren't impervious to magic, and can indeed be killed. They may have saved the world once or twice, but in the end, they're no different from you or me.

At least, that's the opinion those three hold. Many others beg to differ. They blindly believe that the heroic trio will always be around to save their sorry behinds when danger arises. To be honest, the people who believe in this theory just end up stressing their heroes out. They can't save everyone everywhere, despite their best efforts.

"Are you _sure_ you know where we're going?"

Sora sighed. Donald seemed to either greatly distrust him or enjoy annoying him. He was inclined to believe the latter.

"Kairi said to meet her at the Bourough, so that's where we're going."

The three friends continued their walk in silence. As they approached the rendezvous point, Sora noticed Kairi sitting down with a worried frown plastered on her pretty face.

"What's wrong, Kairi?"

She got up, nervously clasping her hands behind her back, and looked into his eyes.

"Maleficent is back, and she's up to no good again. Only this time, she hopes to get her hands on the only three people standing in her way of unleashing darkness upon the whole world."

* * *

Cloud Strife sighed as he gazed out the window at the scenery (if you could call it that) of Hollow Bastion, also known as Radiant Garden. He snorted. '_Sure doesn't look like a beautiful garden to me.'_ It was a somewhat of a good thing, as gardens held a negative connotation for him. Not only had he found his severely injured best friend in one, but they also reminded him of Aeris. He furrowed his brow at that thought. Aeris was fine and dandy; why should there be any negativity associated with such thoughts? For the life of him, he couldn't imagine why. Had she ever betrayed him? Had she ever purposefully harmed any of their friends? He couldn't think of any reason to say "yes" to any of the above. There was no reason for such negative feelings, he decided. No reason what so ever. He would just have to be extra-nice to Aeris in order to make up for those horrible feelings. 

There was a small nagging voice in the back of Cloud's head, telling him that he forgot something, that there was more to the story. He just ignored it and went back to polishing his sword.

* * *

**Author's Notes: I'm going to update on the first of every month, although things may change later on. This one's a little short, but I'm going to make future chapters longer. A bit of foreshadowing here…ominous clouds lurk on the horizon, methinks. **

**-Doggiegal **


	3. Chapter 02: Slipping from Reality

_Sweet Oblivion_

Written By Doggiegal

Chapter 02: Slipping from Reality

_"I reject your reality and subsitute my own!"_

_-Adam Savage, _Mythbusters

_Fires burning all around. Screams from children, women, grown men—they all fill the air with dread. The pungent smell of death—the smell of burnt bodies—surround those either fortunate or unfortunate enough to still be breathing. Running, running—Sensei calls out, a short conversation is carried on, but then it's back to running. Running, running—a cry of anguish. Mr. Lockhart lay dead, Masamune protruding from his chest. Filled with anger, the fifteen-year-old closes her eyes, willing for this to be some sick dream…_

With a loud cry, Tifa Lockhart woke up from her nightmare. She looked around the room, trying to slow down her quickly beating heart. _Why now,_ she wondered. _I last had this nightmare a week before Kadaj and his gang showed up. Does this mean we'll have to regroup the gang in order to defeat Sephiroth again? _She shook her head, trying to erase all thoughts of Sephiroth and the incident that occurred nineteen years ago. _Maybe listening to the radio—at a low enough volume to prevent others from waking up—would help me get back to sleep. _Satisfied with her plan, Tifa went over to her radio. She quickly adjusted the volume before turning on what she hoped would be relaxing music.

"_This fire is outta control/I'm gonna burn this city/Burn this city…"_

Tifa shut off the radio with a groan. _So much for relaxing music_. She was quickly getting a headache, and decided that she would take some aspirin, splash her face with water, and then try to get some much-needed sleep. She got up, stretching her tired muscles, and walked over to the bathroom. She got herself a glass of water, and swallowed two pills with its aid. As she splashed water on her face to wipe away all the negative feelings, she felt the familiar feeling of being thrust into what she affectionately called the "white room."

"Heya, Teef." His trademark smirk—cocky and arrogant—was firmly plastered on his face.

"Hello, Zack." She was truly grateful to see him. They'd held conversations like this ever since Sephiroth had been defeated and Geostigma had vanished—in other words, for twelve years. He always knew just the right words to say, as if he'd been handed a script.

"You doin' okay?"

"…I had another nightmare." Her eyes were downcast. The events she had seen in her dreams led up to the point where she basically told Zack she hated his guts. Obviously, she wasn't angry with Zack himself, but rather at ShinRa and their SOLDIERs.

"Geez, Teef…now that you mention it, you look like you've been run over by a truck." She glared at him. Okay, maybe he _didn't_ always know how to comfort someone. The point is, he tried. …Probably.

"Thanks for the confidence boost." Zack's arrogant smirk quickly faded into a worried expression as he realized that she was seriously freaked out.

"You think he's back? Teef, you should tell Cloud."

"I don't think he'd take it very well."

"How could he, though? How could you? Hell, I still can't forgive the guy." Zack knew the friendly Sephiroth had died before the terror started—killed by Jenova and his own greed—, but he still felt as if the man had betrayed him.

"I'll figure out what to do." Empty words, as Tifa was frightened to her core and had next to no idea as to what to do.

"See ya' later then, Teefy."

And then she was back, less than a second having passed during their conversation. She quickly turned off the lights in the bathroom, making her way back to her room. Right now, her body demanded sleep. She could dwell on things in the morning.

* * *

"**Are you ever going to leave the Café, Hale?"**

**The brunette boy being addressed didn't even acknowledge his elder, as he had his nose in a book. He had been reading more than usual—which might have been a good thing, if it weren't for the fact that _The Adventures of Tom Sawyer_ was probably a bad influence on the boy. **

_(Ignorance is bliss, I suppose.)_

**"I know you're angry about being left out from everything, but that's no reason for you to go off and sulk."**

**"I'm not sulking; I'm reading. There's quite a difference between the two, I believe."**

**The young man, no older than thirty-five, sighed unhappily. He had scruffy black hair that was lightly spiked in the front. He wore a blue hoodie—his favorite—along with a pair of slightly worn shorts. His face scrunched up as red-hot pain blossomed through his gut.**

**"Ooh…my stomach." He hunched over, clutching his stomach as beads of sweat broke out on his skin.**

_(Oh God…_please_ let this not be who I think it is. Please…she haunts my thoughts during the day; my dreams were my only escape.)_

**"Uncle Zone? Are you all right?" Hale had gotten up not long after he'd realized that his uncle had the stomach cramps again.**

**"I-I'm f-f-fine." He was obviously not okay, but he was trying to hide it—and doing a terrible job at it, to be honest.**

_(I seriously hope I did a better job of disguising my emotions.)_

**"Uncle…?"**

**"T-Tyson's outside, w-waiting for you." Zone, desperate to get Hale's attention off his current problem, played his ace—a challenge from his nephew's nemesis. Both Hale and Tyson were competitive children—it ran in their blood. As they were the only males younger than twenty, they were best friends, but they were also worst enemies. It was suspected that Tyson's father had had a hand in their rivalry.**

**"Why didn't you say so earlier? I've gotta go! See ya'!" And with that, the rash, overeager young boy dashed out of the room, grabbing a black case on the way.**

_(Okay, this is getting confusing. Zone, Watts…they all died before having kids. So, who is the 'Hale' I'm viewing the life of?)_

**"Hey, Ty! Ready for a rematch? I was sleepy last time; I wasn't giving it my all."**

**One only had to look at Tyson to realize that he had complete confidence in himself; he was practically oozing charisma. His wind-swept blonde hair fell into his eyes as the preteen smirked. He wore a blood-red shirt and tan pants. The shirt had a silver design outlining a pouncing tiger.**

**"Get ready to lose again, fool."**

**Both boys opened up heavy-looking cases to reveal two well-kept gunblades, though neither looked like it had a personal touch to it.**

_(What the hell? I thought Seif…_he_ and I were the only ones who knew how to wield a gunblade—and, according to Sora, he doesn't remember a thing about his "glory days.")_

**In the reflective surface of the gunblade, Hale's face was reflected back at himself, so he was staring into his own eyes.**

_(He looks like…)_

The man woke up, breathing rapidly. A tear fell from his eye as he mentally finished his sentence.

_(…Rinoa…)

* * *

_

**Author's Notes: Eep...a day off. I totally forgot. Sorry! _Tom Sawyer_ (and _Huck Finn_, for that matter) is awesome. And if you can't guess who's dreaming that last bit…well, you may need to replay FFVIII. Zack makes an appearance here, much like Aeris did in Advent Children. Zack's cool; I couldn't leave him out of the action entirely. "This Fire" belongs to Franz Ferdinand; I don't own it.**

**See you next month!**

**-Doggiegal**


	4. Chapter 03: Connecting the Dots

_Sweet Oblivion_

Written by Doggiegal

Chapter 03: Connecting the Dots

Sora turned to face all of his friends—all of whom lived on Hollow Bastion, at least—with a grim expression on his face. The news he was about to share with them was far from good news; it was news of a new battle. He knew that everyone present had seen more than his or her fair share of death and destruction, so he couldn't help but feel sorry for them. He just hoped they wouldn't "shoot the messenger," so to speak. He could handle legions of Heartless, but his friends were trained warriors and could easily beat him if they teamed up.

"Maleficent is back, and she's planning total world domination again. Only this time, she's going to use a carefully guarded portal of darkness in order to achieve her goal. The three—or at the moment, two—Guardians of Light protect the portal from falling into the hands of evildoers. The reason I say two people are guarding the portal is because I believe that Tifa is the third one, and she's obviously here with us right now. Maleficent has a plan, no doubt to eliminate the three and anyone else in her way. She doesn't take too kindly to failure, I've noticed."

He watched multiple expressions flash over his audience's faces—fear, shock, anger, exasperation.

"How do we stop her?" Leon, as always, was straight to the point. Years of military training had instilled certain instincts within the thirty-one-year-old.

"Well, first of all we must locate said planet. I'm not sure how we'll manage that, but I'm certain we'll figure something out."

Tifa bit her lip. There was something she was supposed to remember, and it annoyed her immensely. Something to do with… "Wings?" she muttered, not quite sure what wings really had to do with anything. Maybe Cloud was rubbing off on her and making her crazy.

"Yeah, Leon, didn't ya' get a letter from that girlfriend o' yours?"

Leon's stormy blue eyes flashed with something not often seen—love? remorse? possibly even anger or hate?—, but his emotional barrier quickly went up again, leaving no traces of his weakness.

"Yes I did, but I didn't understand it. It was written in some sort of code."

"A cryptogram? Squall, let's decode it!"

"That's Leon." He scowled at Yuffie, but she didn't seem to notice.

"C'mon! Please?"

Leon sighed. "Fine, I'll show you what I got. Stay here." He left the room, coming back a few minutes later with an opened letter in his hands. Yuffie, of course, quickly snatched it away from him so she could look at it.

The letter consisted of two parts: a drawing and the actual writing. The letter itself was indeed a cryptogram, along with any notes on the drawing. The drawing showed a piece of the universe they lived in, with multiple circles (presumed planets) marked with notes.

One by one, the group passed along the letter, trying to see if they knew the solution to the code. As Tifa was handed the paper, a sudden memory overtook her.

_Zack smiled at the three-years-younger girl. "Hey, wanna learn a neat trick?"_

_The four of them had set up camp, as it was getting late. Of course, Zack wasn't a big fan of idleness._

_"Sure; why not?"_

_"Obviously, all SOLDIERs need to stay in contact with Shinra HQ. In order to do so, we use a multitude of codes. Here, let me show you the simplest of them." He took out a piece of paper from his backpack, along with a pen. "You see, the letters a through m go on the top row. Draw a bar under those letters, and then write the letters n-z below it in reverse alphabetical order. That's your key."_

Tifa blinked. _'What if...?'_ She quickly wrote out the key on her hand with a spare pen lying around. She then attempted substituting the first couple of letters, and realized that they spelled the addresse's name.

"Anyone have a spare piece of paper, or can I write on this?"

Cid grabbed a sheet of printer paper, which she quickly snatched. She then proceeded to decode the message.

_**Squall-**_

_**Included with this letter is a detailed map which leads to our secluded home planet. Odds are, the two of us will be gone by the time you arrive. If so, immediately proceed to the Angel Wing Café and ask for Hale. He will direct you to our location and pass on any other instructions.**_

_**Good luck!**_

_**-the Angels**_

Yuffie looked over Tifa's shoulder, a perplexed expression on her face. How had she figured that out? "By Leviathan, I think she's got it!"

* * *

There was nothing that could ever compare to the hustle and bustle of the Seventh Heaven Bar, not even the Angel Wing Café. The Bar was always so full of customers that it was hard on Tifa, Vincent, and Irvine as it was, but without Tifa there it was twice as hard. Vincent was now soley on drink-making duty, leaving Irvine alone to deal with the customers if Denzel was busy, and Denzel was usually busy training.

The times Irvine cursed his luck was often, seeing as how his wife was somewhere unknown and the owner of this joint was off chasing her flighty and crazy boyfriend. But really, he was actually quiet lucky to _have_ this job. It was an easy way to make money, considering how he was a naturally charming person. He was good with people.

Vincent's skill at just cooking in general had previously been a secret between the four, mostly because he was "afraid it would wreck his image" (as Irvine would put it). He was a behind-closed-doors type of cook, only instances like this forcing him to put his skills to use.

It wasn't like he was around much unless it was during work hours, either. Irvine could only assume that he was watching over the three chicks who'd left earlier; two of them should be fine, being good fighters in their own rights, but Ellone stunk at fighting and everyone knew it. She could possibly hinder the other two, and Vincent was like their guardian angel. Demon. Whatever.

They might just need his help.

* * *

**Author's Notes: …I lost the second half of this chapter. It was supposed to be something completely different, but oh well. **

**See you next month!**

**-Doggiegal**


	5. Chapter 04: Slow Progression

_Sweet Oblivion_

Written by Doggiegal

Chapter 04: Slow Progression

Gathering Selphie and Seifer wouldn't be an easy task. First, they'd stop at Destiny Island and "kidnap" Sefie. They would explain everything to her and, if what Sq—_Leon _said was true, she'd understand and agree to help them. Convincing Seifer—who lived with Fujin and Raijin in Twilight Town—to help would be extremely difficult to begin with, made harder by the fact that Squall—Seifer's sworn enemy—was with them. They'd worry about that later, however; it wasn't prevalent or anything right now.

Finding their way to Destiny Island wasn't too hard, especially since Sora was able to locate his home easily. Luckily, it was a relatively short journey. Heaven only knows what would have happened if it had been longer. With that many people, it would probably have been painful. They got off the ship, looking around.

"We're messing with the worlds!" Donald cried in protest…as was to be expected. Goofy, ever the loyal friend, nodded with his usual "A-hyuck."

To be honest, nobody else—not even Sora, and that was saying something—paid them any attention. They were too busy looking for Selphie. Which, luckily, wasn't too hard with her bubbly personality and her tendency to scream things out at the top of her lungs.

"He-hee! I won! My butterfly is _soooo_ much bigger than yours, Tidus!"

"Yeah, you wish!"

Their heads snapped over to the beach area. Her voice had _most definitely_ come from over there. The rather large group of heroes made their way toward the beach area. From even such a distance, they were able to spot her distinctive bright yellow dress. Even if they were in the gummi ship, way above the planets, Sora mused, they'd probably still see the dress.

They walked over to the energetic young girl who had yet to realize that there was a relatively large group of people approaching her current position. It wasn't until Tidus had cried out, "Hey, who are all these people?" that she acknowledged their presence.

"Hi, Squally! Hi, Sora! Hi, Kairi!" She waved to the three she knew. "Who are the rest of you?" She tilted her head in confusion.

Leon stuttered out a correction to his unwanted nickname, while the others introduced themselves and greeted her kindly.

"Wait, wait, wait…how do you know Squall—"

"—Leon—"

"—seeing as you're so much younger than he is? I mean, you're fifteen and he's—gawd—31!"

"I don't look my age, but I'm actually 31, too!" An evil witch cast a spell on me and made me look this way. A really powerful witch, 'cause even our resident one couldn't reverse the spell." She frowned. "It's not weird with Squall, 'cause I didn't have any inches to lose and he's always been _really really_ tall, but with the others…I _had_ to find a way to get back to normal, even if it meant going on a—and this _still_ embarrasses me—witch hunt. It's just…it makes my marriage really awkward, you know?"

With Seifer, it was a similar story, although he was glaring at Leon the whole time. The once 6'2" man was now 5'6"—two whole inches shorter than Leon. To add insult to injury, Seifer was actually a year older than Leon. All this served to make him grumpy. In his way, this was equivalent to losing to his hated rival. Fuu (or Fujin) and Rai (Raijin) eyed them warily, untrusting. They too were now fifteen, and trusted no one.

However, not everyone was unhappy. Aerith, in particular, was thrilled when she heard that Twilight Town was being visited by a carnival. She begged Cloud to go with her on a roller coaster. Despite his slight misgivings, Cloud agreed to do so. It was best just to keep her happy. Nobody benefited when Aerith was unhappy. In fact, it was quite scary.

Seifer, pissed off by Aerith in general, couldn't help but mutter, "I bet she'll fall off the roller coaster and break every bone in her body." His posse laughed along with him.

* * *

Somewhere in UnReality with Elle, it struck her. He was coming. It was inevitable. She wasn't sure whether this made her happy or not. On one hand, she was regaining the love of her life, but on the other, things had changed drastically. It had been eleven years, after all.

He was strong, calm, composed. A warrior in every regard, always marching forward. Always plowing ahead. Perfection in a human form, that's how she'd always seen him.

She in this state would only hold him back. A blind woman was no use to him, not even if he loved her more than life itself. She wasn't flattering herself with this; he'd told her so when he'd proposed all those years ago.

In reality, she knew that, assuming he actually _was_ willing to give her up (fat chance), she has two cards she could play: Number one was the pity card, and the other was their offspring, although she was _way_ too proud to actually use either of these. Besides, the part of her that had known that he was alive—that he was _coming _for her—knew that he would clutch her tightly when they were reunited, and would refuse to let her go unless he absolutely had to.

These positive thoughts had been fueled by the reassurances of her two friends and companions earlier on in their journey. One, having known her fiancé since he had been an infant, reminded her that he had loved her enough that he'd carried her across a _huge_ bridge just to have her back with him, even though he had had no clue as to what was wrong with her. He had located _her_, whom he had not seen in years, as difficult as it was, to try and change the past for her. He had jumped into Hyne-forsaken _space_ for her. The other, as she had expected, was much the opposite. The blonde told her to get over it; it wasn't really that big a deal anyway. She offered to permanently blind her as well.

Oh, how she hoped that all this was true and that he could stand having a blind wife.

* * *

**Author's Note: Late, but hey. I got it done…eventually. Time to work on my other stuff.**

**-Doggiegal**


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